![Bluesky Secures $8 Million In Seed Funding and Launches Custom Domains As First Paid Service](https://surgezirc.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/images-18.png)
Bluesky has recently announced a successful seed funding round of $8 million and the launch of its inaugural paid service.
The company raised the funds during the summer, transitioning from a public benefit LLC to a public benefit C Corp. Bluesky’s latest offering allows end users to have custom domains as their unique handles on the platform.
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Neo, a community-led firm with notable partners such as Ali Partovi, co-founder of Code.org, and former Twitter PM Suzanne Xie, led the seed round, as stated in Bluesky’s official announcement.
Several angel investors, including Joe Beda (co-creator of Kubernetes), Bob Young of Red Hat, Amjad Masad of Replit, and others, also participated in the funding round.
The capital raised will support Bluesky’s team expansion, operational management, infrastructure costs, and the growth of the AT Protocol, which powers the Bluesky app.
Bluesky’s decentralized social network protocol offers an alternative to ActivityPub, the protocol behind decentralized Twitter rival Mastodon, and soon, Meta’s Threads app.
With this funding, Bluesky aims to explore revenue generation opportunities. In their blog post, Bluesky acknowledges the traditional reliance of social media companies on advertising, where users often become the product.
However, Bluesky’s goal is to establish a distinct business model that aligns with its vision of user data ownership and freedom to switch platforms. Therefore, they intend to experiment with various strategies and services to provide real value to their users while maintaining a sustainable social network.
To kickstart its monetization efforts, Bluesky will introduce custom domains as its first paid service, in collaboration with Namecheap, a popular domain registrar.
Prior to this paid service, Bluesky had already allowed users to set custom domains as their handles, with over 13,000 users among their 100,000+ user base utilizing this feature.
The new paid service aims to simplify the process by enabling users to set up a custom domain within minutes, eliminating the need for extensive familiarity with domain registrars and DNS settings.
Bluesky plans to explore additional bundled services for users in the future, although specifics were not disclosed in the recent announcements.
In response to community feedback and concerns about decentralization and moderation, Bluesky has been actively expanding its feature set and policies.
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It recently introduced custom feeds and updated moderation guidelines, seeking public input on its approach to moderation and safety.
These developments come amidst criticisms from some community members regarding Bluesky’s handling of hate speech. Addressing these concerns and maintaining user satisfaction is crucial for Bluesky to retain its user base in the face of competitive alternatives like Meta’s Threads.